Effects of tropospheric aerosols on the solar radiative heating in a clear atmosphere

Summary The broadband solar absorptivity concept is employed to parameterize the aerosol absorption effect. The solar radiation model developed by Liou and his associates was modified to incorporate the parameterization of solar radiative transfer in an aerosol layer. Comparison of the results from this method with other schemes exhibits close agreement. A Sahara dust storm case was also chosen to test the performance of the present model, and the computed heating rate profiles agree well with calculations based on optical properties derived from observations for both clear and dust cases. In general, enhanced heating due to aerosol absorption of solar flux occurs particularly in the lower troposphere (below 5 km). The heating rate is independent of the scattering partition factor (), but the planetary albedo increases with . Further study shows that the aerosol heating is sensitive to the surface albedo (r_s) and to the cosine of the solar zenith angle (µ₀). The decrease inr_s and/or increase inµ₀ lower the solar heating rate, the planetary albedo and the atmospheric absorptivity, but raise the surface absorptivity due to reduced multiple reflection between the atmosphere and surface.With 9 Figures